Casting with a fishing rod, and a fly rod in particular, is all about managing the casting technique. For the angler it is of importance to “present” a fly as far out from the rod as possible. This requires a good casting technique, using a fishing rod with optimal qualities.
Casts with conventional double handed fly rods are made using both hands. Today's traditional double handed fly rods are equipped with a fore and a butt handle, where both are connected to the rod's centre axis and longitude.
The butt handle makes up a part of the rod's rear end, positioned at the rear end of the reel seat of the rod. On conventional, prior art rods, the placement of the butt handle surrounding the centre axis of the rod may cause a detrimental position of the arm in the elbow and shoulder joints, seen in relation to a natural and anatomically correct movement pattern. Through long term use and repeated movements, the detrimental arm position may cause stress and strain injuries.
In order to create a powerful flick and to make the best possible use of the maximum resilience and elasticity of the rod, the application of force on a doublehanded fly rod should mainly be carried out with the lower arm—that is from the butt handle. Most anglers perform an enclosing grip around the butt handle by holding the whole central palm of the hand in contact with the handle. An incorrect position may be caused because the elbow joint is being pushed away from the body at the same time as the shoulder is getting a prominent and strained position.
The prior art fore handles for fly rods are almost standardized, the actual fore handle being mainly made of cork material or foam rubber. It is common for the prior art fore handles that the handle itself is physically glued in its entire length directly to the oblong, thin and elastic body, often referred to as the “blank”. A physically glued handle will contribute to a stiffening of the rear part of the rod. It gives stability, but it will also have a restrictive effect on the resilience and elasticity of the rod, because the blank is physically stiffened in the “glued” area.
Since the fore grip constitutes an integrated and rigid part of the rod, the elastic motion of the blank will start at the fore end of the handle, farthest away from the end of the rod.
The power needed for performing a cast with a fly rod is inflicted by hand, and the energy is transferred to the rod at the point of the grip, enclosed by the hand. The power is further transferred to the fly line or the bait/fly through the part of the blank which lies between this point and the top of the rod. The elastic nature of the blank material makes it bend like a bow and receive a potential energy which, once released, will give the fly line and the bait/fly an accelerating motion either forwards or backwards. The part of the blank which is below the point where the hand encloses the grip, will not receive a potential energy/being bent, and will thus not contribute to the acceleration of the bait/fly. The flexibility and resilience of the blank is thereby limited, since essential power reserves of a fishing rod lie in the lower part of the blank.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,351,473 discloses a fishing rod where the grip is equipped with a handle in the shape of a tubular body. The rearmost end of the blank is fastened inside the rear end of this tubular body, in a way that to a certain extent allows the blank to move relative to the tubular body inside the tubular body. At its open end, the tubular body is provided with a cone shape design.